In this comedy set against the backdrop of actual Soviet attempts to reach space, Hungarian director Balasy Lengyel makes a funny and touching story of racism and class-war that existed even in the classless society.
Lajko is a gypsy rocket-enthusiast who gets sent to prison after his naughty and semi-successful rocket pranks but instead of serving time he gets into the Soviet space program, to be a guinea pig before they send an actual Soviet man to space.
So Lajko’s name is a wordplay on Laika the famous dog sent to space. As its main character’s name the film itself isn’t very subtle. It is making fun of communism, racism and turns the Soviet space program into a bizarre screwball farce.
Going in as a space travel enthusiast, I had to leave all of my expectations early on and I admittedly hoped to get a comedic deconstruction of Soviet space program from the early sixties and rolled with this farcical comedy that deals in mentality and repression. So basically it could’ve been set anywhere, it just happens to deal with the Soviet space pioneers. I guess this choice makes sense because it still remains one the greatest achievements of USSR and it will definitely be a draw for people like me looking for some nice space travel stuff.
In this case, you won’t get it. But it’s enjoyable enough.
Give me Back One Hour of my Time Please
I said one hour, because I haven’t finished watching this. I usually finish watching movies, but in this case I couldn’t. Felt like torture. The gags in this comedy are either cheap, lame, cliché or simply not funny at all. The production is good though, the idea had a potential, but the overall execution made this a pure time waster without any value. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
